The present invention relates to a new and improved method of manufacturing a weapon barrel comprising a liner and at least one jacket tube which are formed from different metallic materials.
The present invention also relates to a new and improved weapon barrel comprising a liner and at least one jacket tube which are formed from different metallic materials.
Weapon barrels are subjected to two entirely different stresses or loads. On the one hand, a high pressure is built up in the interior of the barrel due to the explosion of the propellant charge of a projectile and the weapon barrel must be capable of withstanding such pressure. On the other hand, the projectile is driven through the barrel at a high velocity and is caused to spin by means of a rifling in the weapon barrel for stabilizing the projectile trajectory. The interior of the barrel is thus subjected to an extremely abrasive stress or load. The two stresses or loads, however, impose different requirements upon the material forming the weapon barrel. One possibility of satisfying these different requirements is to provide correspondingly large dimensioning of the weapon barrels. However, the weapon mobility is thus impaired and, furthermore, an extremely great amount of material is required.
In a known method of manufacturing a weapon barrel a liner tube is placed in a shrink-fitting arrangement into a jacket tube. In this method it is disadvantageous that there is required a precise working of the internal bore of the jacket tube as well as of the exterior surface of the liner tube. In the event of damage to the internal tube, for example, by cracks or fissures which result from pressure stresses, there can occur a substantial change in the weapon caliber, and, as a result, a destruction of the weapon barrel by a projectile.
It has also become already known to the art to provide a fiber-reinforced layer as a connecting tube between a liner tube made of steel and an exterior or outer tube which is also made of steel. Such constructions have become known for a gun barrel as well as for hand weapons or firearms. When using such a construction a weapon barrel of low weight can be produced; however the operability of such a barrel is very limited due to the thermal sensitivity of the material which is arranged between the two tubes. Particularly, in actual use the thermal stress exerted upon a weapon barrel, and specifically, caused by the temperature of the propellant gases as well as by the abrasive stress exerted upon the barrel by the projectile, can not be subjected to narrowly defined limits.